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At last, after more than 20 years, "Total Fucking Darkness", the infamous third demo from British extreme metallers CRADLE OF FILTH, will be officially released in vinyl format on May 5. Housed in a heavy gatefold sleeve with paintings featuring the twisted visions of BBC Radio One presenter and occult artist Daniel Carter, the release will include some tracks previously unreleased by the band.

Frater Nihil, the founder of Cacophonous Records, the label that first signed CRADLE OF FILTH, got together with Dani Filth and Paul Ryan (former guitarist and now in THE KING IS BLIND) to bring fans of the band, both old and new, a remastered version of the demo along with material that had been sitting in the vaults for 20 years. They entered Turan Studio in Oxford and with the help of the engineer (who has worked on everything from EMPEROR to THIN LIZZY) brought the old recordings a new lease of life.

The album kicks off with the track "Spattered In Faeces", the only surviving track from the now mythical Goetia sessions, followed on Side A and the rest of Side B with the recordings from "Total Fucking Darkness". Side C begins with another previously unreleased track, "Devil Mayfair (Advocatus Diaboli)", recorded at Samhain 1992, the rest of the side and the next feature the other three tracks from that session, along with two short instrumental pieces from the band's former keyboardist, Ben Ryan.

There will be a press of 666 copies in colored vinyl for retail, with a digipak CD version also available.

The first pressing of this album will be available as an unholy trinity, three two-color 180-gram vinyl variants limited to 222 copies each; orange/black, blue/grey and grey/black. Each copy will have a booklet limited to this edition, with a foreword by CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth and previously unseen photos from the band vaults.

Side I

01. Spattered In Faeces02. The Black Goddess Rises03. As Deep As Any Burial

2014 marks the 20th anniversary of "The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh", the historic debut album from CRADLE OF FILTH on Cacophonous Records. To honor this momentous occasion, CRADLE OF FILTH is planning a whole smorgasbord of exciting stuff, including the first-ever CRADLE OF FILTH comic, the release of a career-spanning double disc best-of, and, of course, the subsequent touring.

CRADLE OF FILTH's tenth studio album, "The Manticore And Other Horrors", sold 4,500 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 96 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous full-length effort, "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa", opened with 5,800 units in November 2010 to land at No. 99.

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